> > > > Your model seems to be > > pre-uplift (stage 0) > > -> uplifting client (stages 1 to 4?) > > -> indentured client (stage 5?) > > Since stage has the same population, and assuming mortality is minimal, > > each stage must take the same amount of time. > > Yes: the period where a species is under uplift may vary a lot, but > it's said somewhere that the mean [median?] is 100k. And the > period of indenture is explicitly stated as 100k. > > > My mental model is > > pre-uplift (stage 0) > > -> uplifting clients, this includes indenture (stages 1-5) > > Ok, but why do you join the indenture period with the uplift > period? They are quite distinct phases. > > > The pre-uplift stage goes fast but has high "mortality" as the GUI denies > > claims or proposed projects. It is also irrelevant. We do not worry > > about pre-clients in this "census". > > Yes :-) > > > The mean term for uplift/indenture combined is 100KY > > No!!! The uplift process can be long or short, but the indenture period > is fixed.
First, let me say that I am a bit embarassed to be having this conversation since it shows the degree to which I have denegrated into a Trekkie -- writing fan-fic is bad enough but I am about to indulge in proof-texting science fiction. Of course, my embarasment is not enough to make me stop.... Note, I am working off of SeJ's Uplift 2nd ed. I don't think DB has (or would need to) develop this little theme. Still, for myself it would be nice to have this bit of background pinned down. Alberto, your reading of the text that there are basically four gross phases of maturity (pre-uplift, uplift, indenture, full-maturity) seems reasonable. Even so, I do not think it was what SeJ intended. I think that the uplift stage (stages 1-5), minor client, and indenture are all meant to be used as synonyms. On Uplift 2nd ed p82 SeJ talks about indenture--that is to say being a minor client--in general. On p83 his intent is not to talk about a different stage in a species life-cycle, instead he just goes into more specific detail about what he just discussed on p82. I cannot prove outright that SeJ did not mean to say that there was a stage of uplift minority followed by a stage of uplift indenture, b I can marshal circumstantial evidence that his intent was instead that uplift minority and indenture were in fact meant to be two words for the same thing. -- Had SeJ meant indenture to be a stage following uplift we would expect him to be quite explicit about it. ---- The order of the passages would be different in the 2nd edition. He would first talk about uplift THEN about indenture. Furthermore, there would be a scentence in the passage about indenture to the effect "The period of uplift is paid off with a period of indenture." (There is a passage that implies this, but it is in the glossare under 'indenture' and can be read as meaning that uplift is paid-off with services rendered during the process of uplift.) ---- There would somewhere be a reference to 100,000 years followed by another 100,000 years or a reference to 200,000 years of subjegation somewhere in DB or SeJ. -- When not practiced by wierdos like Humans, the 2nd edition allows for only about a 30% variation in the duration of uplift if we keep stage 5 at 50KY (and the book say 50KY is a *minimum.) The minimum period is 83KY and the max is 105KY. There is no need to posit a second 100KY because many species are uplifted really fast. -- The indenture passage on p82 say that patrons can perform uplift manipulations on their indentured clients. If the clients have completed their uplift then how can their patrons still perform uplift on them? -- The Nahalli are reindentured to the Thennanin for punishment, and presumably rehabilitation. This implies that the Nahalli are *NOT* subject to uplift as clients in their minority, but the Thennanin are responsible for the Nahalli. The Thennanin have been cursed with an albatros--they cannot reform the Nahalli without uplift manipualiton. (This might make sense if the Thennanin were the Nahalli's uplift consorts and are being punished rather than rewarded.) -- When the Stoort free the Kaschan (their elders) and the Heebi (juniors) from the J'8lek, the Kaschan are indentured to their uplift consorts as were the Heebi, the Pargi. Why? Under your interpretation they were *indentured* this means that they must have finished or been absolved of further patron supervised uplift. Why force them into an indenture? If they go into indenture why not the trouble-making Stoort? _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
